Dev Game Club

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we complete our series on 1985's Ultima IV. We delve into dungeons, pilot ships all over, explore the later-game evolutions of the quest, and share some stories before turning to our takeaways. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.
Sections played:
Many hours more
Issues covered: the literary help on the game, requiring 64K, having a consistent voice, how long a game it is, losing a ship, the Gate spell, needing to go back to every town, talking about towns and understanding the shrine quests, locking in elevations, getting later-game quest info, influencing the Triforce, keys without keys, naming dungeons to be the antithesis of the virtues, being unable to take risks like these, rich and dense theming and intricate reinforcing design, dungeons being near the virtues they oppose, requiring a ship to get to many dungeons, using the sextant to get latitude and longitude, mapping the dungeons, dungeon features, first-person hall crawl vs battle rooms, being penalized for fleeing combat, what preconceived notions do we enter with, feeling really dungeon crawly, elaborate battle map usage, The Crypt, getting stuck in a dungeon, describing an A bug, the uselessness of winds, a cove full of pirate ships, ship to ship fighting, finding the town Cove via whirlpool travel, filling in the blanks yourself, a consistent and elegant pattern, symmetry everywhere, design by programmer, leveraging your programming constraints in your narrative, the meta, what we're not, having a point of view about ethics, a procedural rhetoric, committing to the bit, breaking the traditional structure, all the mysteries you need to pay attention to, trusting the player, accessible mysteries, an extremely packed game with layers and meaning, an impactful and relevant game, not wasting your time, a Swiss clock, potential other connections.
Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Dungeons & Dragons, Ultima Underworld, Legend of Zelda (series), Diablo IV, Baldur's Gate III, Minecraft, Eye of the Beholder, Final Fantasy (series), Halo, LostLake, Calamity Nolan, Richard Garriott, BioShock, Mass Effect, BioWare, J. R. R. Tolkien, Karla Zimonja, Dark Souls, A Fool's Errand, Hitman, Dwarf Fortress, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.
TTDS: 1:10:55
Next time:
Commemoration
Twitch: timlongojr and twinsunscorp
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Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on Ultima IV. We talk about the boat, we talk about dungeons (a tiny bit), we deep dive into NPCs and consequences, we talk about the quests and how everything is in the world, and answer some listener email. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.
Sections played:
More of Ultima IV (Much more, in B's case)
Issues covered: revisiting locations and finding new things, a game that does a lot with a little, everything existing in the world, getting to know the world, NPCs sharing sprites and being hard to remember, getting a ship and fighting your way on, broadside combat, dying to a waterspout, wanting to search the oceans, badly simulating tacking, riding a horse, being interrupted in any location, trying to replicate the tabletop experience, feeling like a "yes" game, whether what you do matters, can you be a thief, watering down a morality system, having a limited palette of options at any one time, layering frosting, taking out the friction and icky feeling, the niche audience of some RPGs, taking elements from older games and bringing them into modern games, asking questions of the player who is also the character, avoiding the uncanny valley, an aside into adventure mode, the horseshoe effect on NPCs, reaching the limits of what the human brain can contemplate, an aside into Dunbar's number, facing the same challenges, chunking chapters, feeling the anxiety of there being too much, coalescing your notes from time to time, the telescope moment and seeing the map, the lack of loot, preparing to do things, validating your assumptions, having to revisit everywhere, the friction of Pikmin, getting good controllers, handheld mode, the Wavebird, bouncing off character creation, character creation we've liked, wanting a story to wrap around a more specific character, the generic hero, having fun with a character creator, a freeing character creator.
Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Final Fantasy (series), Gold Box (series), Eye of the Beholder, Outer Wilds, The Witcher (series), Beowulf, Dungeons & Dragons, Wizardry (series), BioWare, Mass Effect, BioShock, Dishonored, CD Project Red, Cyberpunk 2077, Baldur's Gate III, Thief, Robin Hood, VtM Bloodlines, Undertale, Dark Souls, Land of the Lost, Dwarf Fortress, Planescape: Torment, Metroid / Castlevania, Richard Garriott, Sasha, Pikmin, Nintendo, Shigeru Miyamoto, Switch, PlayStation, Analog Pocket, Ashton Herrmann, Monkey Island, Wing Commander, Morrowind, Fallout 3, Dragon Age: Origins, Bethesda Game Studios, Blizzard, World of Warcraft, Diablo (series), Metal Gear Solid V, Hideo Kojima, Saint's Row IV, Call of Cthulhu, Asher, Cuphead, KyleAndError, Hitman, FFSZilla, MGS: VR Missions, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. 
Note:
Because Ultima IV has very little music to speak of, I will be substituting music from later in the series in the openings to these episodes
TTDS:
38:30
Links:
Majuular Ultima IV video recommended by Chris 
Next time: Finish Ultima IV
Twitch: timlongojr and twinsunscorp
YouTube
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[email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on 1985's Ultima IV. We talk a lot about the mysterious sense of the game, the talking interface and mechanics, and dive a bit into combat before turning to reader mail. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.
Sections played:
Another number of hours
Issues covered: missing out on talking to someone, sleeping sprites, having a talk prompt and fallbacks, having generic topics per town, putting together with nouns and verbs, adding to world-building, introducing riddles and puzzles, having a sense of what's going on under the hood, exploring through talking, the technical implementation issues, the letter limits, likely implementation details, iterating on a design, fast travel, the many eights, explaining the moon gates, fleeing a boat, the ways you can pause the game, how the moon states work, the persistence of the world, the long table, more arguments for the persistence of the world, getting into combat, the zoomed in battlefield, strategizing around leveling up characters, readying/switching weapons, anticipating dungeon combat, the combat soundscape and understanding the battle, using every key on the keyboard, how many monsters there are, leveling combat, leveling up by talking with Lord British, non-linear XP table, reinforcing the relationship with both Lord British and Richard Garriott, having the cycle of leveling up, the surprise of discovering Magincia, a question of controllers, swapping between screens, distinctions between different Pikmin games, our favorite Pikmin types, charity unlocks, capybara attacks. 
Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Sierra, King's Quest (series), LucasArts, Dungeons & Dragons, Larian, Baldur's Gate (series), Eye of the Beholder, The Outer Wilds, Her Story, Sam Barlow, Deadly Premonition, Ultima Underworld, Final Fantasy Tactics, The Elder Scrolls (series), Serious Sam, Richard Garriott, Ultima Online, Darren Johnson, Star Wars (obliquely), Pikmin, Dark Souls, Missile Command, MysteryDip, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, Calamity Nolan, Virtual Boy, Okami, The Simpons (obliquely), Asher, FSSZilla, Cuphead, Hitman, Metal Gear Solid, Dwarf Fortress, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.
Note:
Because Ultima IV has very little music to speak of, I will be substituting music from later in the series in the openings to these episodes
TTDS:
59:13
Next time:
More Ultima IV!
Twitch: timlongojr and twinsunscorp
YouTube
Discord
[email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we begin a series on 1985's Ultima IV. After talking about the recent Defeating Games for Charity, we set the game in its time, talk about our encounters in the past with the series, and then dive into the manuals and the start of the game. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.
Sections played:
The first couple of hours and the manuals 
Issues covered: Defeating Games for Charity, the first pancake, our experiences with this series, an opaque franchise, mainlining a game, opacity being part of the point, performance characteristics of the PCs of the time, the importance of the manuals, entering the world as yourself, using the manual to reinforce the role-play, not requiring graphics, priming the player, describing the geography of different areas, imposing importance on a handful of pixels, the quest of the game, sublimating the quest of the game, a less traditional RPG experience, after reading the manual, the deep questions/dilemmas, tournament structure, choosing your most important virtue, getting the bard, series characters who can join your party, reflecting your beliefs, getting different dilemmas, the Venn diagram of virtues, the Tinker profession, symmetry in design, Buddhism and the Eightfold Path, countering the cultural zeitgeist, the Avatar and Hinduism, a deity's manifestation on Earth, finding your way into swamps, both hosts being poisoned and dying, death and rebirth, being unable to recruit early.
Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Dwarf Fortress, BioStats, KyleAndError13, Silksong, GreyFiery, Hollow Knight, Untitled Goose Game, Kaeon, Hitman, N0isses, Hades, Phil Salvador, MYST, RobotSpacer, Shadowgate, Unpacking, Kendrama, CalamityNolan, Splatoon 2, Typing of the Dead, Dark Souls 2, Nitro, Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, LostLake, Minecraft, Super Mario Bros Shuffler, Devil May Cry, MegaMan X, Belmont, NES, Atari 2600, Ultima Underworld, A Bard's Tale, Eye of the Beholder, Magic: The Gathering, LucasArts, Super Mario 64, Space Harrier, Gauntlet, Ghosts n' Goblins, Gradius, Super Mario Bros, Tetris, Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego, Spy vs Spy (series), Oregon Trail, King's Quest II, The Goonies, Gremlins, A View to a Kill, Rambo, Temple of Doom, The Empire Strikes Back, SEGA Master System, Sonic (series), Wizardry, Apple ][, Commodore 64, Civilization III, The Sims, Bill Roper, Warcraft, The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind, Reed Knight, Pool of Radiance, Dungeons & Dragons, Warren Spector, Ultima Adventures, Outcast, Fallout, Wasteland, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Harley Baldwin, Richard Garriott, the Ramayana, Ed Fries, Benimanjaro, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. 
Note:
Because Ultima IV has very little music to speak of, I will be substituting music from later in the series in the openings to these episodes
TTDS:
06:25
Next time: More Ultima IV
Twitch: timlongojr and twinsunscorp
YouTube
Discord
[email protected]

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on Pikmin. We talk about building back from loss, a rough ending, and compact level design, amongst other things. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.
Sections played:
Finished the Game (B) or Played a bit more (T)
Issues covered: the charity stream, how many parts do you need, maybe less necessary ship parts, coming back from a bad day, combat and losing units, strategies to build up your armies, fighting the slog and demoralization, the tyranny of the day timer, stats at the end of the game, having a day to rebuild, a mismatch of tone and play, figuring out how the conversion flowers worked, an economical game with economical levels, playing against enemy ecologies, small footprint with lots of overlay, a daily bombing task, a player type that interacts poorly with the game, not handling the vertical well, the first iteration, thinking about the unit types in other RTSes, the final level and its environmental challenges, the final boss and changing the rules, dev team size, genre conventions and inspirations, drawing inspiration from elsewhere, make the final boss easier, context and tone working together with gameplay, catching up with a review.
Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: CalamityNolan, BioStats, KyleAndError13, Silksong, LostLake86, Minecraft, N0isses, Hades, Brad Smith, Teenage Blob, Pilgrims, Kaeon, Untitled Goose Game, MegaMan X, Dwarf Fortress, Phil Salvador, Myst, Cyan, Splatoon 2, Project Octavia, Super Mario 64, Starcraft, Ensemble Studios, Halo Wars, Halo, Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre, Ogre Battle 64, Breath of the Wild, Benimanjaro, Hitman, Spelunky, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. 
Next time:
Defeating Games for Charity Links:
Donate! 
Follow on Bluesky
Defeating Games YT 
Twitch: timlongojr and twinsunscorp
YouTube 
Discord 
[email protected]